Hungry Work
by redroseinsanity
Summary: Saving Paris is hungry work and our superheroes eat superhuman amounts. So Adrien can't believe Marinette's appetite can be bigger than his and Marinette gets competitive. Adrienette and food, the two best things in the world. ONESHOT Rated T just in case.


**So… We all know that Adrien looks at food the way we wish a guy would look at us but he's not the only one with a huge appetite. Cue Marinette!**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own unending appetite.**

* * *

Adrien's eyes widened as he watched Marinette place the entire quiche in her mouth and chew as though it had been a teensy éclair _and then reach for another_.

"Bro- Dude- Are you okay?" Nino waved a hand in front of Adrien's face then turned to figure out what had caught his best friend's attention, "Ah, I see you've discovered Marinette's superpower. That girl eats more than anyone I've ever seen. Okay, maybe except you, but then again you have strict diets to follow, don't you?"

Adrien's shoulders slumped as he remembered the 5 day liquid detox diet he had been put on just before that shirtless photoshoot. Sure, the washboard abs that hardly needed any photoshop had been an instant success with the photo being the number one search item for days and random girls following his torso -not him, just his torso- with hungry eyes, but it had been awful. He couldn't even explain to Ladybug why he had been so weak when they faced an akuma attack that happened the day he started eating again.

She'd been full of worry and concern and when he offered the excuse of not having eaten well the day before, she told him to wait, disappeared for five minutes and returned with a bag full of pastries. A small smile crossed his lips as he remembered her large blue eyes, somehow both concerned and steely as she ordered him to eat and her looking even more alarmed when he practically inhaled the pastries.

She had ruffled his hair and muttered, "Silly minou," before leaping off across the buildings. The intensity with which she'd looked at him, her eyes burning with a mixture of worry and exasperation and care, _almost_ made starving worth it. But only almost, he shuddered, food was amazing and not to be taken lightly.

He snapped back to the present, staring in awe as Marinette continued to calmly make her way through an entire bowl of mashed potatoes. His eyes dropped to her impossibly tiny waist and slender wrists and flicked back up to her eating the last spoonful of potatoes.

 _How is this even possible? I'm Chat Noir so my metabolism is crazy fast but how is Marinette eating that much food?_

* * *

"Okay, don't look now, but Adrien is staring at you," Alya spoke in as calm a tone as possible. Marinette immediately choked on the last mouthful of mashed potato and hacked in what must have been the most unglamorous manner in the history of choking. _Great, my crush is checking me out and I decide to cough out my food and lungs at the same time. Way to look demure, Mari,_ she frowned at herself, wheezing for air.

As she took several deep breaths, she heard Alya go, "Hey Nino!" And looked up to see Nino sitting down opposite Alya with Adrien right behind him, she gulped and waved, not trusting herself to speak.

"So Mari, Adrien here, can't believe how much you eat," Nino grinned, "I told him it's just because you have a bottomless pit for a stomach but he doesn't think it's possible for anyone to eat more than him."

A competitive spark ignited in Marinette, giving her the courage to look Adrien straight in the face and say without stuttering, "I eat more than anyone I've ever met and I can bet I eat more than you." It was true, since she'd become Ladybug, her metabolism had been in overdrive and fighting the akumas was hungry work. Her parents had been taken aback by the enormous increase in appetite but they delighted in feeding her more once they realised that nothing much else had changed.

Something flashed in Adrien's green eyes as he met hers, a Chat-like smirk on his lips, "Wanna bet?"

"EATING COMPETITION!" Alix bellowed from behind, making the four of them jump.

Immediately Alix, Nino, Alya and Max began planning the logistics for this event while Marinette and Adrien stared at each other with surprise. Marinette's shyness began to take over again as she blushed and dropped her gaze, inwardly panicking, _I can't compete with Adrien! I'll just choke on everything and he won't find me attractive at all!_

Meanwhile, Adrien had different concerns, _Oh god, what if Marinette actually beats me? No, that's impossible, I won't lose… But she does seem to eat a lot. Oh god, Ladybug will never let me live it down if she hears I lost an eating competition to a normal person._ He clenched his jaw, stressed and determined, not catching the way Marinette nearly swooned over his jawline, _I'll win this competition hands down._

* * *

 _Oh my god, I'm going to lose this competition,_ Adrien thought as Marinette finished another slice of pie, making it the second pie she'd finished in total. It had taken the unofficial planning committee (AKA Alya, Nino, Alix and Max) two days to get it all ready but they had gotten sponsorship from Marinette's parents who had cheerfully announced that they would provide as many pies as the teens could eat. They had settled themselves in the park where Adrien and Marinette were seated at a picnic table and their classmates surrounded them, perched on the other picnic tables.

Adrien had thought that Marinette would cave before she even finished the first pie and was completely caught off guard when he realised she was starting on the second before he was done with the first.

 _Don't even look at him, focus, Marinette, you can win this,_ Marinette steadily made her way through a slice of excellent blueberry pie. She had been ready to lose, to be distracted by Adrien's smile, his hair, _him_ , but one look at the relaxed way he munched the pie had relit that competitive spark into a flame. She could beat him, he didn't think she could, but she would show him. That competitive flame was a blazing bonfire now, one that shone in her eyes as she shoved the rest of the slice in her mouth, and Adrien gulped, rushing to finish his second pie.

He hurriedly rammed a forkful of pie into his mouth and chewed furiously, barely pausing to appreciate the explosion of tart and sweet flavours, silently thanking god that Marinette's parents were such fantastic bakers. All of a sudden, Marinette began giggling and he stared at her, confused.

Marinette forgot how to chew when she saw the little blob of cream that sat on Adrien's perfect nose. _How can anyone be so… so… adorable?_ She giggled as his expression morphed from absolute concentration to confusion and her giggles bubbled into sweet laughter when he went cross eyed to look at his nose. _Somehow, Adrien just made me fall in love with him even more_ , she sighed dreamily in between peals of laughter. Their classmates had begun giggling too and some pictures were snapped as Adrien laughed along good naturedly.

Then a mischievous glint entered his eyes as he peered down his nose at the cream and then at Marinette, still letting out occasional giggles as she tried to go back to eating. In one swift motion, he swiped a sizable amount of cream from his plate and daubed it on Marinette's cheek.

Everyone froze, including Marinette, who gasped, her eyes going wide and her hand reaching to touch her cheek.

 _Oh my godohmygod, Adrien touched me. ADRIEN TOUCHED MY FACE. He's looking at me, oh lord, that look is enough to kill me, who knew Adrien had a flirty look. I might pass out. No, hang on, Marinette, Adrien just put CREAM on your cheek and he thinks he can get away with it?_ A dangerous smirk appeared on Marinette's lips, _Not likely_.

When Marinette made no reaction, he started panicking slightly, _Oh shit, was that overboard? What if she doesn't take that as a joke?_ Then he saw her smirk and his traitorous heart stuttered in a way that he had thought was reserved for Ladybug.

"You're going down, Agreste." Marinette announced, all confidence, and with scary precision, she seized her slice of pie and launched it at his face.

"YAS, MARINETTE, OWN IT!" Alix yelled and Alya let out a whoop as she switched to video mode, anticipating some serious war.

No one expected Adrien to snatch the flying slice of pie mid-air and take a bite out of it, all the while looking illegally suave. This time Max and Nino shouted their approval; "SHOW HER HOW IT'S DOWN, ADRIEN!" Kim roared and high fived Nino.

Blue eyes narrowed and with no warning, Marinette flung an entire pie at Adrien with a strangled war cry. Green eyes widened and Adrien ducked, to have the pie splatter on their cheering classmates.

Silence.

"I'm- So Sorry!" Marinette gasped, trembling hands over her mouth as she took in her pie splattered friends.

"You two started it but THIS. IS. WAR!" Kim vaulted over a table and smashed a handful of pie into Adrien's face.

"FOOD FIGHT!" Alix's war cry was way louder than Marinette's as she followed suit, raining down handfuls of peach pie from her vantage point of a picnic table.

Before the two competitors knew it, they were flinging pie with just as much enthusiasm and dodging as much of it as possible. When no one was looking, Adrien caught flying bits of pie and stuffed them in his mouth, why waste food? Alya had tried to continue filming until she was caught head on by a flying piece of raspberry pie, thrown by Rose, who somehow managed to look triumphant and apologetic at the same time.

"All right, screw this, ALYA'S COMING IN!" And she scored a direct hit on Nino's chest with a handful of apple pie.

By the time the pie had run out, it looked like a paintball war had taken place with everyone covered in splatters of blue and red and grinning from ear to ear. Marinette slumped down on the grass beaming and panting slightly, to find herself next to Adrien. He turned to smile at her and it was like she was looking at the sun. His smile was the brightest she had ever seen, _he probably never gets to play like this_ , she mused, and he reached out a hand to her.

"Truce?" His voice sounded like laughter, as though his happiness was so uncontainable that it infused everything. She took his hand, some blueberry getting on his hand in the process, and shook it.

"Truce." Her eyes danced and her slim hand in his made his heartbeat quicken, he never saw this Marinette. He knew it existed, but she never showed it to him. Until now. Her blue eyes full of light and humour, her voice assured and clear, his brain shut down and he reacted almost instinctively as Chat.

Turning her hand in his, he raised it to his lips, the way he did with his Lady. His eyes never left hers and although her lips parted in surprise, she made no move to stop him. At the last moment, instead of kissing the back of her hand, his tongue flicked out in a cat-like fashion and he lapped up the spot of blueberry filling on her hand.

He was blushing slightly but forced himself to remain calm. His tongue had barely grazed her skin but he had heard her inhale sharply. Looking up at her, he grinned, just as Chat would have at his Lady.

"You taste better than pie."

* * *

 **Dear god, if Adrien actually acted like that, I would have passed out, poor Marinette HAHA. Slightly OOC, I think? But I had so much fun with this so I hope you enjoyed it as well!**

 **Lemme know what you liked or didn't like, I would love to hear what you think!**

 **-Redrose**


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